Kid Cudi connects his listeners with themselves. More impressively, it seems the artist is able to design his songs to correlate with any emotions underlying the lyrics. This artist, a Cleveland native and a major contributor to Alternative Hip-Hop during the 2000s, gives of himself by looking within and finds exactly what his songs need.
Need proof? Notice how each song seamlessly sings with verse and beat to share precise moods also found in the poetry of its lyrics. Join us in exploring the work of Kid Cudi a lyrically brilliant musical artist who has earned appreciation for his work. Here we go!
1.) Sky Might Fall
Album: Man on the Moon: The End of Day
Released: 2009
Sky Might Fall stands above the other songs from Kid Cudi’s debut studio album. Man on the Moon: The End of Day, for its soft-running beat that helps the song have a tone to reflect a climbing mental attitude. The faded haunt of the organ synth gives a vibe that compliments Sky Might Fall’s message.
It hints at mental death being required for a mind’s rebirth, a great philosophic comment for anyone trying to overcome internal issues. Throughout Sky Might Fall, the organ synth brightens, giving a warmth to the lyrical concept of maintaining momentum when times are tougher.
How can one move forward when the Sky Might Fall? Listen. You’ll find out. That’s what causes it to earn the number one spot on our list.
2.) Mr. Rager
Album: Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager
Released: 2010
Beginning organically, with echoing raindrops and wooden drum beats. Mr. Rager utilizes silence to create space before the song’s hook because this song is a painting with sounds.
Its simplicity spells how it captures its listeners, the song never betrays itself, it calls, then responds sets something up, and doesn’t leave any loose ends before the song ends. Ultimately, the album tells a series of stories spelled from the depression Kid Cudi has taken upon himself to share so listeners going through similar troubles might listen and learn.
Expert Tip: Mr. Rager is a song that moves within a sonar landscape, up and down and all around without outstretching. Mr. Rager is a song with an atmosphere of its own.
3.) Mojo So Dope
Album: Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager
Released: 2010
Herein, an artist reflects on his problems with song, but what’s new about that?
In Mojo So Dope, Kid Cudi owns himself and creates a feel-good vibe with a comfortable and accessible beat. It moves toward the future, moving forward with mojo so dope.
The best songs are more or less self-explanatory. That is what earns with song our number-three spot.
4.) GHOST!
Album: Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager
Released: 2010
Genres: R&B/Soul. Hip-Hop/Rap
This song is unique. It spins with a circular, half-time phantom-like feel with its six-eight time signature. The high trumpet synth compliments Kid Cudi’s lower voice, mirroring a ghostlike sense into the beat. That combination excites anyone who enjoys an interesting drum beat.
Overall, GHOST! takes a particularly positive spin on what happens eventually to everyone. We get older, we grow weary, and we realize time has blown by. As listeners, we empathize with the lyrics here because of the gut feeling that grabs you when thinking about your past and past mistakes.
5.) Pursuit of Happiness
Featured artists: Ratatat, MGMT
Album: Man on the Moon: The End of Day
Released: 2009
Here is a song that has and will age like an enjoyable wine. Using masterful call-and-response techniques. Kid Cudi links phrases with a slight variation on simple beat patterns that work extremely well.
For example, the slow-rolling drum groove just before the bridge works well with the following electric guitar solo, which hangs so tastily on the back of the beat.
Music composition aside from lyrics, Pursuit of Happiness presents the poetry of the human paradigm, of moving forward with the life that unrelentingly seems to resist one’s personal efforts. We all move forward because life moves on, but how many artists can successfully comment on the specific ways life resists your efforts to progress?
6.) Enter Galactic (Love Connection, Part I)
Artist: Kid Cudi
Album: Man on the Moon: The End of Day
Released: 2009
A dense and busy beat builds as verses paint the fun reliving of a loving couple relighting their passions for a night. Enter Galactic presents an innocent yet eccentric, blissful organization of structured grooves. It feels like fun almost like the warm buzz from the first strong cold drink of a fun night. However, the fun feels specific to that of reminiscing lovers.
7.) Marijuana
Album: Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager
Released: 2010
Who wouldn’t clap for Marijuana? This beat trickles with delicate sixteenth-note clicks, building with claps for a snare sound until the glorious chorus comes in. When it does, goosebumps are sure to follow. It’s set up with a grand design.
It seems this song can mimic the journey where a joint takes its host. It starts kind of weird but then goes up and down in waves. Kid Cudi has done it again looked within and facilitated a song that feels honest and naturally like the original concept in a physical way all without relying on overcomplexity.
Expert Tip: Cudi has captured yet another real-life experience into song form.
8.) Day ‘N’ Night
Album: A Kid Named Cudi
Released: 2008
This song is a classic, released in 2008 on the album called “A Kid Named Cudi”. What can be said about it? Put simply, this song utilizes upbeats and quick, short breaks like a masterful magician could manipulate stacks of cards. The song is simple, yet seamless, and mixed to perfection. Who hasn’t heard this song?
9.) Trapped In My Mind
Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager
Released: 2010
Genres: R&B/Soul, Hip-Hop/Rap
Trapped In My Mind is a true trip. From its first few seconds, listeners realize it isn’t meant to feel comfortable like a lot of Kid Cudi’s songs.
Often songs paint a picture to be warm, cold, or however, needs to be matching the theme of the song. This one was designed to do exactly what it says, but luckily the song is not unenjoyable in how it achieves this.
Trapped In My Mind mimics the cyclical self-trappings of an unhealthy mind by chopping time into short intervals of space, almost like choked breathing. With this aggravatingly repetitive beat, the song smoothly climbs with blended crescendos and tonal rises. Again, Cudi manages a grand design of alignment to his intended message.
Listening to this song makes the listener feel trapped without it feeling painful, which is important to note. Trapped In My Mind does what it came to do, showing how it feels to be trapped between your ears without making them bleed or risking insanity.
10.) The Void Artist: Kid Cudi
Album: Man On The Moon III: The Chosen
Released: 2020
Kid Cudi doesn’t disappoint by following the theme of his own song yet again to a supernatural degree. Creating space in Void Cudi used the wide sizzling tambourine drum kit sound. By doing this, he created a lingering space that doesn’t feel like sizzle fills the space between each hit. which carries the song in a light-yet-lumbering texture.
The Void has a seeming density for how much actual silence is left after the song plays. It fills nearly all of the time it runs, without overcrowding the listener with a busy beat. The voicing of the drum kit does more work there. In many situations something by trying too much.
Expert Tip: Kid Cudi’s songs work efficiently with the voices of synths and drums to reflect their intended meaning. However, a self-explanatory song better refers back to its title “The Void”.
11.) Solo Dolo Pt III
Album: Man On The Moon III: The Chosen
Released: 2020
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
This song offers feelings Cudi went through over the course of his life. It is crucial that artists step up like this for art to move forward toward something humanity can unite with. It seems Cudi is able to share himself, breathing his own lifeblood into the music itself.
Solo Dolo Pt. Ill’s slow beat drapes these hard poetic lyrics with a lilting, downward arpeggio at the end of each turn of the beat phrase. This little twist on melody gives a graciousness to the lyrics like they’re his real feelings like they’re precious or royal to him in a physical way.
This song also offers listeners a sense of camaraderie. Any one of us could imagine our own troubles recorded against Solo Dolo Pt. Ill’s inviting beat. It seems anyone could find a personal commonality there.
12.) Soundtrack 2 My Life
Album: Man on the Moon: The End of Day
Released: 2009
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Here on our list is another comfortably slow beat with rounded drum kit sounds. Soundtrack 2 My Life is a warm song with a cold heart that explains the pains of being alone.
Demonstrating how sad pain can exist in hip-hop form, and working to provide solutions to exactly how one can share their troubles without seeming whiny or preachy after all, everyone just wants to feel heard.
13.) Tequila Shots
Album: Man On The Moon III: The Chosen
Released: 2020
Here’s another banging trap song with a bit more bite on its tempo and flow than Cudi’s other trap hit Heaven On Earth. It moves more quickly than one does with Tequila Shots.
14.) In My Dreams
Album: Man on the Moon The End of Day
Released: 2009
In My Dreams will echo in your mind before, during, and after you hear it. Literally, it echoes throughout. Complimenting the use of technical echoes with audio engineering. Cudi used violin strings to stretch chords, swelling them up and down across the echoing beat patterns.
In My Dreams grows with inspiring words and ends with a voice-over, a direct message. But this begs a question as to what Kid Cudi is saying about dreams. Echoes seem to be a major component of how they work like your mind is echoing in its sleep about all the things it learned that day.
The mind reflects the experience it has in everyday life, but it does so in the form of dreams. After all, aren’t dreams just the mind trying to tell you about yourself?
15.) Swim In The Light
Album: Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’
Released: 2016
Contrasting with most of Kid Cudi’s go-to song structure, this song leaves listeners guessing playfully so they might notice the obligatory uncertainties of life. As the song moves forward, it uses extra beats here and there, space here and there, all to leave the listener to question where the next beat will fall.
What a great way to comment on existence, by a simple tweak of simplicity itself? Swim In The Light tries to complicate while his other songs do not. This is why Kid Cudi’s classic voice, paired with this specific kind of complexity, earns this final spot on our list.
What is Kid Cudi most famous song?
Pursuit of Happiness is a famous song by Kid Cudi. With more than 400 million streams on Spotify, it is a clear winner. The Pursuit of Happiness beat blends piano and guitar and sounds together to sound more like 90s radio rock than rap/rock crossover.
Not to mention that an American neo-psychedelic act, MGMT performed vocals on the chorus, and Ratatat, an American electronic rock duo produced the song. The combination was outstanding and had a lasting impact on fans and is still Kid Cudi’s best song.
So, what is Kid Cudi most famous song.?
The answer is the pursuit of Happiness. The song debuted and peaked at number 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the week ending October 3, 2009. It made its US TV debut in 2009, during the Late Show with David Letterman. Later, Cudi performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Expert Tip: Since its release in March 2013, there have been over 2,000,000 downloads. On April 9, 2022, Cudi performed a medley of Pursuit of Happiness at the Kids’ Choice Awards for the first time.
How Many Number 1 Songs Does Kid Cudi Have?
Rapper Kid Cudi has had much success with both his singles and albums, but only one of his songs has reached a number 1 spot. His hit single ” The Scotts” which he recorded with Travis Scott and The Scotts made it to Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list.
Since the Billboard Top 100 highlights the most popular songs of the week, this shows how big of a success the song was when it clinched the top spot back on the 4th of May 2020.
All in all, the rapper has seen five Top 10 hit records and has made four platinum sales. These platinum sales came from the songs, “Erase Me,” “Up Up and Away”, “Make Her Stay”, and “Pursuit of Happiness.” However, the first-ever song he released, “Day n’ Nite” is still a favorite amongst the fans, even though it never did make it to a Number 1 spot.
What was Kid Cudi’s first big song?
Kid Cudi’s first major hit song was “Day ’ Nite,” the first single released off of his debut studio album Man on the Moon: The End of Day.
Though Cudi initially posted the single on his MySpace page in 2007, picking up steam from underground hip-hop blogs, it was not officially released until February 5, 2008, as part of his breakout mixtape “A Kid Named Cudi” and then again as the debut single from his first studio album.
“Day ’ Nite” debuted at 88 on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number 3. On March 13, 2019, the song was certified 5x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and has sold 5 million units to date.
“Day ’ Nite” was written and co-produced by Cudi in collaboration with his longtime friend Dot da Genius. There were three different music videos published along with the song, each with a distinct style.
Conclusion
A review of this list will reveal the dedication Kid Cudi pays to his songs during the writing process. He works intricately to organize the music with the lyrics, to match tone and message, and to align the overall song design. The work of this artist speaks for itself, as art does intrinsically, it speaks to his and our humanity.
The lyrics and music from this artist have been merged in an undeniably seamless fashion. Kid Cudi makes music from within himself which compliments why listeners have empathized so strongly. Have we missed any on our list? Let us know!